Quantum Entanglement
by quackerducker
Summary: Scott Lang tries to learn more about the Quantum Realm. He takes a more mystical perspective into account. [Cross-posted from Ao3]
1. Chapter 1: An Ant-agonizing Pupil

"Doc, I seriously don't know what we're trying to do here." Scott Lang, a.k.a. Ant-Man, recent escapee of The Raft, and current member of Steve Rogers' Secret Avengers had been rubbing his temples in frustration, trying to comprehend a single word said by one Dr. Stephen Strange, former neurosurgeon, now Sorcerer Supreme, who, at the moment was very displeased with Scott's lack of focus.

"For the sixteenth time, Mr. Lang-"

"Fifteenth. That one time with the off-hand comment doesn't actually count."

Stephen Strange let out an exasperated sigh. "Mr. Lang, the process to unlocking your memory of your experience of the Quantum Realm relies heavily on your ability to clear your mind, and focus on meditating upon the hidden aspects of your subconscious."

"Okay. Gotcha. Subconscious. Right." Scott gave him a two-thumbs up, adjusting his posture, seated on the floor of Strange's meditation room. At the sorcerer's signal, he closes his eyes, the scent of relaxing incense filling the room. Scott takes a deep breath, attempting to clear his mind-

But the heavy scent of burning lavender incense only suffocates him, causing Scott to cough up instead. "Blegh. Do we really have to do this, Doc? With the whole incense shebang? Can't you extract the idea from my head Inception-like?"

"Scott, I'm not sure you want me to penetrate your mind."

"I can take penetration." Walked right into that one, Strange. Scott smirked at the curmudgeonly sorcerer, who had narrowed his eyes, glaring at him. Realizing that the ex-con's mischievous smirk would be going nowhere, Strange averts his eyes and clears his throat.

"Be that as it may, these memories may be entangled in a quantum state, between existence and non-existence."

"So, it's like, Schrödinger's memory, you're saying-don't look at me like that, Doc. I have a masters in Electrical Engineering. You're not the only braniac in the room."

"I didn't say anything." Strange quirks a brow, arms crossed.

"But you were thinking it."

"..." Strange continues to stare him down.

"Anyway, so you're saying that I may or may not possess these memories simultaneously at all- how is that possible?"

"This is much of a supposition, as I don't claim to be an expert on the workings of your Ant-Man suit, nor the Pym Particles that power it-"

"-Hank Pym would be furious if you did, by the way. He's kept that formula a secret for more than forty years now."

"-but considering that shrinking down to a subatomic realm where the fabric of reality itself has been reduced to its most basic unit, the strings that govern the behavior of each particle..." Strange continues, blatantly ignoring Scott's offhand comments, as he had learned to in the past week he had been spending training with the man. "... your very existence in that Quantum Realm may have affected the way these strings move. If each string produced a certain note when plucked a certain way, your presence in there caused some strings to play a different tune, perhaps."

"So why can't I remember?"

"There are several possibilities. One is that your existence in the Quantum Realm had opened your mind unwittingly to every possibility of that instance, like seeing different strains of dimensions, of possible realities that could have happened and/or are happening, causing your brain to suppress these unneeded information as a defense mechanism."

"So you're saying my brain couldn't handle it?"

"That is a crude way of saying it, Scott. I don't think any normal human mind can handle the immensity of the infinite possible realities simultaneously."

"Not even you?" Scott raises a brow, his pale green eyes searching, meeting Strange's in the dark.

Strange pauses, keeping eye contact with Scott.

"Yes, not even me." He replies, admitting this fact. "It might surprise you, but even I, the Sorcerer Supreme, am bound by the constraints of my own humanity."

They remain silent for a while, with neither men saying anything.

"Dinner and a movie." The corner of Scott's lips curved up to a playful smirk as he pierced through the fog of silence between them.

Stephen raises his brow, completely confused at what was going on through the intrepid Ant-Man's head. "Excuse me?"

"Well, if you're going to _**penetrate**_ my mind, search the deepest, darkest corners of my subconscious, I need to get to know you first, Stephen. I don't want to give you the wrong idea, man." Scott winks.

"Charming." Replies the sorcerer in a disinterested monotone, though Scott was quite certain he saw the mystic's lips curve up ever so slightly.

 _This was going to be a quite an interesting entanglement,_ Scott thought.


	2. Chapter 2: Ant in Shining Armor

" _ **Honey, is this guy bothering you?"**_

This was embarrasing.

This was _very_ embarassing. Wong would not live it down for weeks. Months, even.

Doctor Stephen Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, Sorcerer Supreme, protector of Earth against the mystical foes and forces that threaten to take over this realm, had been losing a battle against one of Satannish's new minions that seem to grow the longer the fight took.

The said creature now towered over the tallest building in the Greenwich Village area, roaring loudly as it mercilessly crushes down on an apartment complex, reducing it to rubble. Luckily, Stephen had earlier instructed Wong to focus on keeping innocent bystanders safe. The older Master had taken to magically transporting innocent civilians into pocket dimensions without space or time. Maintaining these stasis dimensions had been taxing on Wong's powers, making him unable to assist Stephen in battle.

Earlier, the sorcerer had managed to create a mystical enclosure that prevented the monster from getting away within a five-block perimeter. In retaliation, it then gnashed its monstrous teeth against one of the rooftops, a scaly, but tentacle-like appendage lashing against the unfortunate structure, where Stephen had been hovering over. The creature had been successful in its attempts to knock the sorcerer down on the ground, striking at the Cloak of Levitation, somehow nullifying its abilities. Stephen took note of this as he pushed himself up, with the help of the newcomer who had rushed to his side.

"Scott Lang. I thought I'd seen the last of you." Stephen groans out, reaching for the Ant-Man's arm.

"Couldn't leave you behind, Doc." Scott's helmet opened up to reveal the ex-burglar's cheeky grin. "I was dropping by the area when I heard from Luis about something going down in Bleecker."

Stephen dusts himself off, keeping his calm, calculated behavior. There was a cut on his lip and his left eyebrow had a bleeding gash.

"That looks pretty bad."

"I had rougher days."

They stared at each other for a few moments, their last meeting not having been quite amicable. Scott shifted a bit, nodding.

"This is awkward."

"Quite so."

"..."

"..."

"So..."

"Scott, I think the _pleasantries_ can wait until after we've dealt with the hundred-foot monster terrorizing downtown New York."

"Yeah, I guess. But _promise me_ we'll talk later, okay? I can't leave without settling what happened last time."

Stephen did not say a word, but he gives Scott the faintest hint of an acknowledging smile.

Puffing his chest up, Scott presses a switch on his helmet, causing the mask to close up. Speaking through the mouthpiece, he asks the sorcerer with a slightly distorted voice. "So, how do you plan on beating this guy?"

"Inside the creature's mouth is a single eye which seems to be its weak point. I have to concentrate mystic fire on it, however, it would be difficult to do so, as it often keeps the eye shielded. I need a distraction."

"Distraction, huh? I can do distraction... Can you fly, Doc?"

Stephen glances at his cloak, assessing its current state. The seemingly sentient artifact feebly swayed as if in response.

"I'm afraid the creature has managed to disable my cloak. Its appendages seemingly have the ability to neutralize the enchantments on magical artifacts. I hope this is merely temporary. I've grown fond of my cloak, as it happens."

"Yeah, a simple 'no' would have been fine too." Scott remarks, taking hold of Stephen's hand, tugging at it. "I've got an idea, but you have to trust me."

Scott then reaches for the console on his left arm, pressing a few buttons. "Gotta teach this guy a few lessons on picking on someone his own size!"

In a quick press of a switch, Scott grew in size, now towering as tall as the creature. He aims a punch at the monster, striking what seemed to be its face (Scott surmises it was pretty hard to tell with these extra-dimensional creatures.). The creature retaliates by wrapping his left arm with one of its tentacles. Scott continued to yank at the tentacle wrapping his arm, causing the creature to squelch loudly in pain. This kept the creature's mouth open. "Any moment now..."

Stephen leapt onto Scott's gigantic feet, casting a quick spell to assist him to be more agile as he ran through Scott's leg, up his knee and thigh, switching over to Scott's back, dashing over the ribbed texture of the suit as Scott and the creature continued their inelegant struggle. Stephen kept running until he reached the top of Scott's helmet. From there, he could see the creature's yellow eye, peeking from the toothy pit that was its mouth. He only had one chance.

Focusing all his magic into a concentrated shot, Stephen aims a blast of concentrated Faltinian flame onto the creature's slit-like pupil.

However, the creature figured out what they were intending to do, jerking Scott to the side, causing Stephen to miss his aim.

Scott falls on his side, dragged down by the creature. He slowly tries to stand up, shaking his head, wondering where Stephen had gone. "Doc? Stephen?"

Then, Scott saw the unbelievable. The good doctor had apparently jumped off his helmet before he fell, plunging straight down into the monster's mouth, his fist engulfed in flames as he attempted to pierce through the creature's eye.

"STEPHEN!" Scott yells out, his gigantic hand trying to reach for the falling sorcerer as he fell. Being several times larger than his normal size, time seemed to move slowly for him, while Stephen seemed to fall through like a bullet, slipping through his fingers.

The creature closes its mouth before Scott could catch Stephen. It makes a swallowing sound, seemingly pleased with devouring the Sorcerer Supreme.

Everything went silent for a moment.

"You're gonna regret that!" Scott grabs the creature's mouth, trying to pry it open, but it kept clamped shut. The creature stood still, seemingly mocking the giant man's attempt to retrieve his companion.

"Give! Me! Back! My! Magic! Man!" Scott inelegantly struggles, tightening his grip as he tried to pull the creature's mouth apart. _This can't be happening,_ he thought. _He's Doctor_ _ **freaking**_ _Strange! He can't be beat by a Chupacabra-looking Cthulhu wannabe!_

Scott then manages to pry it open just a bit, and from that tiny opening burst a powerful blast of energy. Scott was thrown back by the sheer force that erupted from it. He landed on his back just right outside the front door of the Sanctum, and his suit automatically restored him to regular size.

A huge explosion came from where the creature stood, obliterating the area around it, leaving a huge, smoking crater on the ground, and the charred remains of a gigantic monster.

A few moments later, and from that same corpse broke free a sorcerer, covered in gunk, his clothes tattered and worn, and feeling worse for wear. He trudges along, ridding himself of most of the undesirables, and limps straight towards the Sanctum. He sees a figure lying spread-eagled on the ground, panting heavily, his helmet tossed aside.

Stephen finds himself letting out a feeble chuckle as he walked towards the incorrigible Ant-Man. He stood above him, but just barely, with a relieved grin on his face.

Scott had returned the grin as he closes his eyes. "You scared _**me**_ , you little shit."

" _ **I**_ was the little _**shit**_?" Stephen furrows his brows.

"And here you said _**I**_ was the _**impulsive**_ one."

"Yes, well..." Stephen croaks out as he falls to the ground, his head laying on Scott's forearm. "I could use a little bit of you every now and then."

"Is this the part where we kiss and make up? Aww, Doc. You did miss me."

"Silence, Scott. I am nursing a terrible headache."

Scott snorts. He was about to make a little joke about a way to cure headaches, but he notices that the mystic had passed out from exhaustion. He leans his head back and heaves a deep sigh, closing his eyes and allowing himself to relax.

It wasn't until later that they woke to the sound of Luis' camera phone clicking, Wong trying to hide a chuckle, and the rest of the Wombats running away from a sorcerer hell-bent on having them erase said photograph.


End file.
